Monday, August 31, 2009

Saturday morning was a typical one. Mostly. We had my niece spend the night with us, which was fun! But it didn't change our schedule up too much. We went about our day as we usually would. I got breakfast on the table while Joe went out to do some yard work. After the yard work we took all the girls grocery shopping with us. (Lemme tell ya, it shows me a whole new level of awe for mothers of twins- taking two 5-year-olds shopping was QUITE the experience!)

We got back from the grocery store around 11, and seeing as how it wasn't quite lunchtime, I sent the girls to play for a while in the house. Now- I, being in my second trimester of pregnancy, was already hungry. BUT I didn't want the girls to eat yet, so I made a sandwich, and went out to get the mail. While eating the sandwich I kinda wandered my yard (so as to give me time to finish my secret first course of lunch). Lo and behold LOOK at what I found!

So of course I quickly swallow down the last little bit of sandwich and head inside to talk to Joe. "Say, Joe- did you notice the mega hole in the side yard?" Of course he did! How could you miss it? Neither of us had ANY idea what may have caused it, though it was a good bet that it was an animal. Just to be sure, Joe placed a large rock on top of the hole. Sure enough, a couple hours later the hole had been widened to allow access around the rock!

Keep in mind, at this point we have NO IDEA what has taken up residence in our yard. The hole was completely clean. No mound of dirt or "cover" like a gopher, and besides this hole is much larger than a gopher hole... SOOOO- we go about our day and don't worry too much about it.

So around 4 or so, Lacey is sound asleep and the two older girls are downstairs playing in the basement when they both come charging upstairs. "MOM! MOM! Can we go outside? There is a PORCUPINE in our WINDOW! Can we go? PLEASE?!" Um- what?! I told them they were stuck inside, but to show me what they are talking about... We went back down to the basement and sure enough, there in our window well was a special BIG visitor. It wasn't a porcupine, and it also wasn't a gopher... In fact, Joe and I had never seen this specific creature before. After a bit of Internet research, we realized we are hosting a GROUND HOG (Otherwise known as a woodchuck) I ran (as much as a belly laden pregnant person could) to get the camera, which was Els and Lil's cue (I guess) to go outside and look down the window well at it. Before I could snap a picture, the girls had scared it off... But from as far as I could tell, our little guest was halfway to breaking into our house, where I am sure she had every intention of sitting down and watching some educational cartoons and chowing down on all my fruits and veggies in the fridge. (She had eaten a hole in our screen, then pulled it down out of the window and chewed a second hole in the opposite end of the screen...)

OKAY- so maybe it wanted to use my window screen for some other purpose, but I DID get pictures of what was there.

Notice the nest in the corner? CA-RAZY!

The second burrow hole- this one is in the window well

A view of the whole window well

A few hours later, I went back downstairs to see if our free loader had returned, and sure enough, she was all curled up in her nest! We have named her Edna.

I have done some pretty extensive research on the subject of groundhogs and have found some pretty interesting stuff out. First off, Edna is a loner. So there is no mate to worry about. Second, No need to worry about pregnancy and babies yet- she won't mate til spring (she may also be a he- in which case I am changing HIS name to Edward). Third, it looks like she is setting up for a winter burrow... (I think she wanted to use the screen to keep the snow off her nest). Fourth, she is a true hibernating animal. She will go to sleep in October where her heart rate will drop to 6 beats per minute and her temp will drop to some 70 degrees. She will take a breath about 4 times per minute, and she will be nearly catatonic until she finally wakes up around March. And fifth- I DON'T WANT HER. She could be digging her burrow under my house (seeing how close her holes are to the house, I wouldn't be surprised) and that could cause foundation damage! ACK!

Saturday, August 29, 2009

Lilia's fifth birthday is on Monday. She is getting so big! To celebrate, yesterday I threw her a birthday party. We invited some of her girl friends over for a pajama party, and as far as I could tell, they had a great time!

Some pictures, of course:

We started out watching Tinkerbell while the girls did a little coloring project- (I didn't get a picture of them coloring the first thing- they all had their own pictures of the Tinkerbell characters)

While they were coloring and watching the show, I went from toe to toe giving "pedicures." They all chose thier own colors...

The result:

After that, we ate some pizza and Lil opened all her presents (they were all excited to have her open her gifts, so why make em wait?!)

The booty:

Afterwards, we played a couple "sleeping games" In one they all took turns pretending to be asleep while the rest of the girls tried to make the "sleeping beauty" laugh. (No pictures- sorry)

In the second game, the girls were ALL asleep and were assigned a "dream" to act out. We had a bunch of giggly dreams, lemme tell ya! A couple of the girls pictures-

There was the kitty:

and the bicyclist:

(I have more pictures of this, but the camera died before I could upload them)

After the games, we decided to do a bit of painting. I pulled out the paint markers and had the girls each paint and decorate their own pillow cases. Some of the girls are quite the little artists!

After the girls tired of painting, we broke out the ice cream cake. After a stirring rendition of "Happy Birthday to You (Cha, Cha, Cha)" it was on to the eating...

Lacey especially enjoyed the blue cotton candy ice cream.

The girls were all very well behaved, and I was glad they were able to come help celebrate Lil's birthday with her! Thanks for coming girls, and Happy Birthday Lilia!

Thursday, August 27, 2009

And so it begins... Lilia started school today. She was thrilled, anxious, scared, and excited all at once. She has an afternoon class, so she is gone from 12:30-3:30. So of course she was wide awake at 7 ready to go. She was NOT thrilled when I made her put on play clothes and not her new clothes, and was even LESS thrilled when I told her we were gonna go run some errands first. With every stop (we made 5), she told me, "Mom- you are making me late to kindergarten!" But she needn't have worried- we got home with an hour to spare!

So- on to the pictures!

Lil's first homework assignment

Two of the neighbor kids that walked with us to school... aren't they cute!?

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

So I have been WAY super busy lately, and have (sadly) neglected my blog... so I took my status updates from Facebook and Twitter and compiled them to give anyone interested (me of the future) some idea of what's been on my mind this month...

PamelaLilia and Lacey look way cute with their new cuts... I just need to get used to it I guess... July 22 at 4:29pm

PamelaIS HAVING A SUPER GOOD DAY! :) Baby's heartbeat is nice and strong AND I don't have to pay an extra 350 on the car! YAY! July 23 at 1:11pm

PamelaI am wanting ideas for good no- GREAT books (preferably a series) to read. Any suggestions? July 23 at 4:39pm

(I had been given many good suggestions- One of which is my latest series of book reads- The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency)

Pamelabent her fingernail backwards today to the point of bleeding- and though it is not that big a deal to look at now, it hurts VERY VERY BADLY! It throbs if I drop my hand below my waist! August 6 at 10:37pm

PamelaToday is the start of a FANTASTIC DAY! Why? Cause I woke up to a clean kitchen, and it's gonna stay clean until tomorrow at least! Gotta love a nice clean kitchen! August 7 at 11:11am

PamelaToday is the start of yet another good day! Joe cleaned the kitchen for me last night (cause he totally rocks my socks) and so I once again woke up to a pretty kitchen AND my niece is coming to spend the night tonight and make some oober yummy cake! :D August 9 at 9:56am

PamelaToday is not so great- funky pains in my lower abdomen… Doc put me on bedrest for the day. Thank goodness for awesome family (for helping with my girls) August 11 at 11:48am

the problem is that it is a parking lot "as is" sale- we couldn't find anyone who could tell us exactly WHAT items were on sale and what ones weren't... And even if they could tell us that the bed was, the one they have MAY have damage to it... So because they had packed everything up, they had no way to tell us if what we want is gonna be out tomorrow. So- we just have to go back.

Pamelais relieved to say that there will be no burning (bed or otherwise) tomorrow as the purchasing of afore mentioned bed will NOT be happening. :) Thank you all for the laughs! August 14 at 11:58p

Pamelaleft the screenless window open for about 6 hours yesterday. So far the dead fly count for the morning is 19. I am a killer fly swatter! Now- to clean up the bodies... step carefully friends! August 19 at 9:19am

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About Me

Nothing special here, except the over use of emoticons :S and ellipses...I have two adorable girls, and one handsome little boy. I really like our family. Not just our kids, but the whole darn family. Siblings, cousins, aunts, uncles, parents, grandparents... you name 'em, I like 'em.